Lucy Ball

A shopkeeper has pleaded guilty to five offences for selling counterfeit tobacco and dangerous cigarettes.

Trading Standards say fake Mayfiar and Richmond cigarettes were being sold at the Orange Convenience Store in Codnor or in the defendant, Aram Ahmad Aziz’s, possession between 27 January 2017 and 21 February 2017.

Aziz, 34, of Cavendish Court, Derby, pleaded guilty to four charges of possessing and selling counterfeit tobacco and one of selling dangerous cigarettes at Derby Magistrates Court yesterday - Thursday, August 24.

The cigarettes were dangerous because the Gold Mount cigarettes he was selling lacked a safety device made of narrow bands of impregnated paper which greatly reduce the risk of a cigarette continuing to burn if it’s dropped or a smoker falls asleep.

Councillor Carol Hart, Derbyshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Health and Communities said: “This is another successful prosecution which demonstrates our clear message to traders who sell illegal tobacco that we will not tolerate it. They will be caught and they will pay the penalties.

“We will continue to take a hard line against retailers who break the law, risk people’s health and threaten the livelihoods of honest businesses.”

Aziz was ordered to pay a £120 fine, £535 in costs and a £30 victim surcharge as well as forfeiting all seized tobacco.

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